Motivation
by Adina Mizu
Summary: A Trolls inner clock can be changed, but only if the Troll in question is willing to change it. Let us see how John deals with it.


Characters are Andrew Hussies.

Quick fluff for my favorite pair. No this is not for 'valentines', I hate 'valentines'. I had to post this now though, so enjoy.

"Karkat, it's time to get up sleepyhead."

The troll groaned as he felt the boy with the bright blue eyes push on his shoulder to wake him. Being a mainly nocturnal being made mornings a regular hassle. Though it was true that a Trolls inner clock was interchangeable it was still a straining process; especially when the troll in question lacked the motivation to change it. John wasn't giving up on it though. He woke his Matesprite up at the deemed time, as per the process Kanaya had suggested, and did his best to keep the troll from sneaking back to snooze. Karkat was very good at finding secret little places to nap. Once the danger of the game had passed he had, for a while, become a sort of sleepaholic. Though having to recover from all the time in game he had spent awake it wasn't all that surprising. The only lasting side affect of that? He developed a skill of finding nesting places. He didn't often need them, until of course John had decided to alter his internal clock.

It had come about from a conversation with Rose and Kanaya. John had been curious about why she seemed to have different sleeping patterns then the rest of the trolls who were mostly nocturnal as per the norm. Kanaya then proceeded to blab about the interchangeability of a trolls inner clock and how, although it was natural for trolls to be night oriented, it was not impossible to switch it around. Rose was the one to suggest doing so with Karkat and thus the plan was formed. At that time Karkat had been up in the respiteblock sleeping, as per _his_ norm, which was about to be shattered.

"Go away, John." Karkat grumbled tucking down deeper into the blankets.

"Nope. You are getting up now whether you like it or not." The Heir announced before pulling the blankets clean off the troll and bed altogether.

"Fuck!" Karkat growled, his body flinching as the warmth from the covers vanished suddenly.

"Time to get up." John repeated with his trade mark derp grin.

The troll failed to give any kind of response and so John leaned over to nudge him again.

"Karka-ah!" John yelped in surprised as he was pulled onto the bed haphazardly.

As soon as the boy's body hit the mattress Karkat locked their lips together. Moving so as not to be crushing the troll John was careful not to break the kiss. Once settled enough so that only their legs were intertwined John pressed into the surprise kiss. A gentle murmuring rose in the boy's throat and once it was verbalized the kiss ended. Karkat pulled away and nuzzled into the Heirs chest. John lay there for a moment to try and grasp the situation. When he tried to move the troll tightened his arms around the his middle where they had slipped during the kiss.

"gfmh." He mumbled into the boy's chest.

"What?" John asked, tilting his head.

Karkat lifted his own head up slightly.

"Go. To. Sleep." He repeated before nuzzling back into the other.

"Karkat." John groaned, "Karkat, that's cheating."

When the troll failed to respond John laid still, trying to think of a counter attack. After a few moments a grin rose on his face once more and he gingerly moved his arms up to rest as best they could on the trolls sides. With Karkat's own arms busy holding him close it left the troll rather defenseless. Snapping his fingers up under the others arms John proceeded to tickle Karkat with a vengeance. The troll's eyes flew open with a guttural sound of surprise at the sudden attack.

"F-fuck- _Egbert!_ S-stop!" Karkat sputtered, struggling to pull his arms back from around John to defend himself.

John laughed as Karkat thrashed about, doing his best to both keep the troll's arms pinned to his sides and continue to tickle at the same time. Managing to free one of his limbs Karkat tried to pry the boy's fingers away from his body. Surprisingly, John was keeping the upper hand and with relative ease was able to flip up on top of the troll. The Cancer didn't have time enough to be surprised as John was now able to wiggle his fingers freely over more of his body. Grunting to stifle the compulsory laughter that strained it's way up his throat Karkat was unable to hide the involuntary smile that pulled at his mouth.

Finally twisting his body so that John was at an angle Karkat used all of his strength with his one free arm to shove the boy off of him. Unfortunately, with all the movement that had happened and with the angle they were now at the action also sent the troll over the side of the bed and onto the floor with a thud. John, wiping the tears from his eyes, crawled over to the side and looked down to find his Matesprite laying on his back panting and rubbing the back of his head with a scowl.

"Are you- alright?" The boy asked, swallowing back his laughter as best he could.

"Do I fucking look alright? I'm on the floor, out of breath and may or may not have damage to my thinkpan because my fuckass for a Matesprite decided to launch a fucking finger assault on me for no fucking reason." Karkat growled.

"I had a reason." John argued, "You wouldn't wake up."

"I never agreed to this in the first place." Karkat spat back, rolling over in order to climb to his feet.

"But don't you want to be able to spend more time with me rather then sleeping?" John asked with a pout.

"I don't see you changing _your_ sleeping patterns to help that." The troll countered.

"But it's not healthy for humans to stay up so late at night. Kanaya said-"

"I don't fucking care what she said!" Karkat snapped, "There was nothing wrong with my sleeping habits!"

John just stayed in his position on the bed as the other entered the adjoining abulationblock. He knew after the troll had woken up more fully he wouldn't be so angry; he was always extra grouchy after being woken up during the daytime. With a sigh the smile returned to the Heir's face as he bounced off the bed and headed down to the kitchen. A plate of hot food would smooth the wrinkles out between them, just like every other morning.

Lured by the tantalizing smell of food Karkat soon entered the kitchen to find John bouncing slightly in a small sort of dance in front of the stove. His head nodded to some unknown beat, humming snippets of it here and there. The troll let out a sigh as he felt himself become less annoyed with the Heir of Breathe as he continued his odd jig as he cooked. Sitting at the island that served as the table Karkat slumped forward on his hands and let out a yawn. Upon hearing the other behind him John turned around with a huge grin.

"Good morning! Or actually, good afternoon since it's really just 2 pm." He said as he lifted the frying pan off the burner, "I'm making you an omelet."

"Hm." Karkat grumbled tiredly, "It's not going to taste like charcoal this time is it?"

"No." John chuckled, "And last time it was half your fault. You distracted me."

The troll shrugged and rested his head on his now folded arms. He closed his eyes, relieving the discomfort the sunlight filtering through the singular kitchen window caused. The light wasn't 'bad' for troll eyes really, but it was definitely something to be worked on. Surviving on his night vision all his life like basically all trolls made it something else he had to learn to deal with. He had a pair of shades for when the light really bothered him, but he hated wearing them. He didn't know how that insufferable prick Dave could stand to wear them all the time. Karkat had begun to drift back to sleep when John plopped a plate in front of him, jolting him awake again.

"Eat up." John chirped sitting across from him.

Looking down at the dangerously browned food Karkat blinked the sleep from his eyes as he leaned down a bit to smell it. Like everything John served him the omelet had to be properly investigated before he took a bite. Once he deemed it safe enough he took a small piece and chewed it slowly. Despite being borderline burnt it tasted pretty good. What surprised him the most was that the ingredients inside where Alternian and not from Earth like everything else John made or used.

"Is it good?" John asked, now showing his giddiness.

"Yea...How did you-"

"You use the same things on your own eggs when you cook so I just went and put everything I saw inside that." John explained.

"Hm, well it's pretty good." Karkat replied taking another bite.

John beamed and pumped his fist in the air in victory with a hissed 'yes'. Karkat rolled his eyes at his Matesprites antics and continued to eat. The boy proceeded to spin in his chair and chatter about the various things they could do with the daylight that was left. Karkat only half listened having no interest in basically any of the daylight activities being mentioned.

"John." He said placing his fork down on his now empty plate.

Caught off guard by Karkat's voice suddenly John stopped his spinning so fast he almost tumbled right off his chair. Gripping the counter to regain his balance John looked at the troll.

"Yea, Karkat?" He asked.

"We're not doing anything out today." Karkat stated, "It's too bright out."

"But Karkat!"

"No."

"It's no fun just staying inside. Besides, it's beautiful out!." John argued, motioning to the warm sunlight that assaulted the trolls eyes.

"That's what I mean! It's too fucking bright out there!" Karkat replied, his voice rising, "I'd rather not melt the retinas of my eyes as I like the ability to use them."

"You've got those sunglasses!"

"I hate those things."

"You've got to get used to the sunlight eventually."

"Gog damnit, John! I am awake! What more do you want!" Karkat snapped.

"The point of being awake is so we can spend more time together!" John replied.

Karkat growled in frustration but was unable to think of a legitimate counterargument. John waited for the troll to make a move; and for his own sake he had better make the right one.

"What do you want to do?" Karkat asked heavily after a moment.

John's face lit up instantly.

"Lets go to the lake." He said cheerfully.

"The lake? Why the fuck do you want to go there?"

"We haven't been there in a long time and the last time we went it was dark out." John answered, "It'll be fun."

"If this is a prank to get me in the water again I swear to gog, Egbert-"

"It's nothing like that I promise. It's too cold to go swimming out now anyway." John reassured the troll.

"Fucking fine then." Karkat said after another moment of silence.

John did another victory arm pump before bolting from his chair to grab whatever they would need while out.

The distance between the Karkat's hive and the lake was relatively small which the troll was thankful for. He was not in the mood for any long distance travel, on foot or otherwise. It was one of the colder seasons and thus the troll was wearing a jacket along with a scarf John had bought him for his first winter. John insisted it wasn't nearly cold enough to wear it yet, but the troll insisted right back that he would freeze without it. It was pretty mild out with the sun shining and little to no 'normal' wind. Had John not found such enjoyment it blowing the multitude of orange and red fallen leaves around it would have been rather windless. At one point just watching the leaves flutter around wasn't enough and the boy jumped into the small wind tunnel and rode along with them, laughing like he was a four year old. Karkat simply watched him, rolling his eyes with a smirk.

It didn't take long to reach the lake, as previously stated it _was_ relatively close. Once there John latched onto Karkat's arm and pulled him up the small hill which was topped with a large oak tree.

"Jegus, John, are you trying to take my arm off?" Karkat questioned once they were at the top.

"Hehe, sorry. But look! Isn't it great?" John asked with excitement.

The sight before the two was something straight from a cheesy human romance flick. The lake's surface was smooth and reflected the sky almost perfectly with a gentle ring of the warm autumn colors which painted the trees around the lake various shades of gold, orange and red. John stood tall and took a deep breath as if he could breath in the entire scene before him.

"Well, what do you think?" He asked Karkat again, "Better then just sitting inside a stuffy old house all day."

"My hive is not stuffy." Karkat replied, though he did have to admit seeing the lake in the light was a whole different experience to seeing at night; night vision couldn't catch this.

"I didn't mean it literally." John said turning to the tree and making to climb it.

"What do you think you're doing?" Karkat asked with a raise brow.

"I'm going to climb up. The view from there should be even better." The boy replied.

"That's stupid, if you wanted to get higher why not just fly up?"

"I don't want to disturb the water with a breeze. It's so pretty how it is right now."

"Whatever. Don't come crying to me when you fall and break something vital." Karkat huffed.

John chuckled and went about trying to scale the tree. With all the time he spent wielding his hammer his strength had really improved, however, his ability to climb trees hadn't. He managed to just reach the first branch, which to be fair was a bit high up, but was only able to get his hands around it. He struggled to pull himself up but just couldn't seem to pull it off. Karkat, who was watching with great amusement from below, was unsure if it was funny or just pathetic. The Heir's legs were swinging like mad trying to find purchase on the trunk, which somehow he had managed to steadily kick himself away from.

"Karkat, _help_." John whined when he realize the poor position he had gotten himself into.

"Fuck that. I am _not_ climbing this tree." The troll replied.

"_Please?_" John begged as his arms started to get tired.

"Nope." Karkat stated with a smirk.

"Oh shit-" John cursed as his fingers lost their grip and his hands slid off the tree branch.

He landed on his feet for the most part but his balance was gone, if Karkat had not been there he would have landed on his ass. Regaining his footing John stood up fully and brushed himself off.

"Nice job. How was the view from way up there?" Karkat asked.

John turned and faced the Cancer with a frown.

"Why don't you go and find out?" He countered crossing his arms.

"I'm good where I am."

"I bet you can't do any better." John taunted.

"Whatever."

"I bet you can't even climb a tree at all."

To this Karkat had no reply.

"You can't can you?" John laughed, which got Karkat's full attention.

"Fuck you, Egbert." He said and pushed passed him.

Looking the tree over quickly he tried to remember how John had managed to climb it to the first branch with nothing to use as leverage. John watched as the troll circled the tree first before stopping where he himself had scaled it.

"Well?" He goaded, which put Karkat into action.

Mirroring as best he could of what he remembered seeing John do before Karkat managed to at least make it up to the first branch. It was more straining then he had first thought and he relied heavily on his claws. It took him almost twice as long as it had taken John just to get to this point. Reaching up as far has he could he still couldn't manage to get any higher on the branch. He was a good deal closer to the trunk though and so he tried to complete the maneuver John had attempted before he fell. He found a foothold, but once he started to pull himself forward his claws slid over the bark and he panicked as he felt himself falling backwards towards the ground.

His landing was softer then he thought it'd be, though that was because John had moved to catch him. John was laughing breathily under Karkat as the troll regained his own steady breathing, the fall having sent a shot of adrenaline through his system.

"You didn't even land on your feet, Karkitty." John teased.

Karkat pulled himself up with a growl and brushed himself off.

"Screw you, Egbert." The troll huffed.

"What's wrong Karkat?" John asked sitting up as he notice how genuinely angry the other looked.

"Nothing's fucking wrong. Everything fine." The Cancer grumped.

"I don't believe you."

"So?"

"No. Don't 'so' me, I want an answer!"

John stared at the troll with a stern look, making the other bristle with annoyance.

"Tell me Karkat."

"I've never climbed a fucking tree before! Happy now? I do not take after shriekbeasts and thus have never had to climb one. I have not and never will-"

John interrupted the troll's rant by pulling him into a quick kiss.

"Karkat."

"What?"

"It's okay, I've never actually climbed one before either." John admitted, "I mean, I've tried loads of times and all, but I've never really gotten anywhere with it."

"Then why even try? It's stupid. Unless you live in a fucking tree like Terezi does."

"Why did you try it then? If you didn't know how either?"

"I don't fucking know. Momentary loss of common sense and reason." Karkat replied rubbing his eyes.

"Oh, your sunglasses." John said, noticing the shades where no longer perched on the troll's face.

Looking down the dark specs where located, snapped in half on the ground where they had fallen moments ago.

"Shit, Karkat." John said picking up the halves.

"Whatever. It's not so bad right now I guess." He replied.

"You sure?" John asked standing back up.

"It's fine. It'll be dark soon anyway."

"Okay then." John replied, though he was still worried that the discomfort of the light would make it hard for the troll to enjoy anything.

After roaming along the lake shore and skipping stone over it's surface, just like a cheesy romance movie, John and Karkat made their way back to the hill with the oak tree. John had insisted upon going back before they left. Sitting with his back to the tree Karkat had his hood pulled up to give his eyes some much needed shade as he was made to face the suns general direction. John was seated between the troll's legs and was leaning back against the others chest. Karkat had his arms wrapped around John as the other hummed the familiar tune he usually played on the piano. It was relaxing. Even being out in the open he didn't feel the need to be on alert, that for just this moment he could sit and enjoy this peace and quiet with his matesprite.

"Hey, Karkat." John said softly.

"Hm?" Karkat lifted his head up a bit to see where John was now pointing.

Before them, glistening over the reflective surface of the lake, was the sun. The burning golden globe was dipping slowly over the horizon casting shades of red, yellow and orange across the sky. Purples and pinks splashed about as well as everything mixed into a vast array of color and light. Karkat was genuinely speechless at the sight. He had never seen a sunset before. The sun on Alternia was to hot and would crisp anyone stupid enough to even try looking at it. Everyone, that is, except for Kanaya for whatever reason. The brightness of it all hurt his eyes but he couldn't look away, he didn't want to miss anything. Not a single bit of it.

"Better then staying inside?" John asked looking up at the troll with a grin.

"Yea." He admitted absently before looking down at the boy.

He gave a soft smile and leaned down to plant a kiss on John's lips in true romance cliché style as the sun set. John felt a wave of accomplishment wash over him as Karkat kissed him. He could feel the soft purring in the others chest, which served to show just how relaxed he was at the moment. Once the kiss was broken John gave a wide grin.

"If you liked that then you should see the sunrise too."

"Why does this whole thing feel like set up all the sudden?" Karkat asked aloud.  
>"You still want to see it don't you?" John asked.<p>

"..." Karkat let out a heavy sigh, "Fucking yes. Damnit."

John beamed at that and pulled the troll's head down for a peck on the forehead.

"We'll take it slow, don't worry."

"Whatever." Karkat huffed before leaning forward more and connecting their lips again.

As much as he loved this moment right now John couldn't wait to get back to the hive and talk to Rose and Kanaya. He had found the perfect way to motivate Karkat into reversing his internal clock. Being a romantic, even if few others saw him that way, there was no way he could refuse the power of the sunset or sun rise.

END


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